By Jorge Casuso
February 28, 2025 -- The 2025 LA County homeless count, which concluded Friday, saw a drop in volunteers but encountered few technical glitches, the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) said.
Conducted by the County for the second straight year, the annual census saw an 8 percent drop in the number of volunteers during the initial three-day count, which took place in Santa Monica on February 20.
In Santa Monica, about 100 volunteers signed up for the count, a similar number as last year, but far fewer than the approximately 300 volunteers who took part in the city's counts before LAHSA took over ("County Set to Count Santa Monica Homeless," February 19, 2025).
"In addition to the volunteer-based counts, several cities opted to have city employees conduct the Homeless Count instead of volunteers," LAHSA officials said.
Santa Monica did not exercise the option to have staff count the homeless individuals sleeping outdoors, as well as in cars, RVs and tents, along the 226 linear miles of city streets.
On the first three nights, 5,465 volunteers from a number of cities, along with LAHSA staff and LA City employees, completed 2,967 of the 3,193 Los Angeles Continuum of Care census tracts, or 87 percent, LAHSA reported.
LAHSA staff conducted "make-up counts: on the remaining 420 census tracts "due to missing or incomplete data, including 17 census tracts located in dangerous areas like creeks or rivers," LAHSA officials said.
Despite the drop in the number of volunteers, there were 60 fewer makeup tracts than the 480 in 2022, which found undercounts that prompted LAHSA to implement a "quality assurance process" in 2023.
Despite improvements that include using the Homeless Count app that uses GIS software, there were reports this year of "limited challenges" during the three-day volunteer counts.
They included "confirmation buttons being too small and miscommunication about volunteer check-ins," LAHSA officials said.
"There were also sporadic technical issues, including some counts not loading into Deployment Site Coordinator dashboards, some census tract outlines not showing in the counting app, and some web browsers not showing all information to Deployment Site Coordinators.
"None of these technical issues affected the data collection process, and all were fixed in time for the second night," officials said.
The 2025 Youth Count also concluded Friday, with LAHSA’s partner, Youth People to the Front overseeing the count that reported "seeing fewer youth across all SPAs (Service Planning Areas)," LAHSA officials said.
This "may be a symptom of diminished capacity from providers, increased canvass regions, and the skillset of surveyors," officials said.
A point-in-time inventory of sites that provide beds and units for the homeless took place on February 19, "and its validation process will run through March 19."
The University of Southern California (USC) will continue conducting a Demographic Survey until March 14 that "is on track to surpass the number of eligible surveys it received in 2024."
"Once all counting is completed, LAHSA will turn over the data collected to its data partners at USC, and they will perform the statistical analysis to produce the annual estimate."
The annual census provides information that helps policymakers and service providers gauge the extent of the homeless problem and implement solutions.
The Census -- which is required by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) -- also establishes a baseline number that is used by jurisdictions when applying for federal homeless grants and housing assistance.
LAHSA expects to release the results of the Homeless Count in late spring or early summer 2025.
